The 'real' Julia Gillard

As the polls level Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced today that she would be dumping the orthodox, closely managed election campaign style so that the Australian public could meet the 'real' Julia Gillard.

Transcript

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KERRY O'BRIEN: With opinion polls now pointing to a nail-bitingly close election race, Julia Gillard has decided to dump the stage-managed, small target orthodoxy of modern election campaigns and says she plans to take risks, and take control of the Labor strategy.

The first new throw of the dice came tonight with a signal from the Prime Minister that she'd be happy to have a second debate with Tony Abbott on the economy.

She's declared that from here on in voters will see the real Julia Gillard, prompting the man who's after her job to question which Gillard we've been shown until now.

The Opposition campaign team says it'll stick to its carefully controlled, low-risk approach, with Tony Abbott calling it the supreme challenge of his life to rise to the occasion and win the election.

Political editor Heather Ewart reports.

(Man holds up copy of Woman's Weekly with Julia Gillard on the cover)

MAN: We've read it all

(Laughter and applause)

MAN: Now if you really want to win this election, wearing that jumper and getting on the front cover of the footy Record, we think that's the way to go.

HEATHER EWART, POLITICAL EDITOR: Who is the real Julia Gillard?

Well whoever she is and who ever she's been since taking office, we're about to see the real thing for the rest of the campaign.

At least, that's what she was telling the media at every opportunity today, from the moment she got started this morning.

JULIA GILLARD, AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER: And if I can use a footy analogy, there are times when the coach says to the players,'play safe and lock it down, short passes keep possession of the ball'.

I think we've been playing our election campaign like that but you see the best of the players when they're really going for it. I'm going to be really going for it now.

TONY ABBOTT, OPPOSITION LEADER: Would the real Julia please stand up? What have we been seeing for the last five weeks if it's not the real Julia?

HUGH MACKAY, SOCIAL RESEARCHER: He'll no doubt use that line to which any intelligent commentator would respond 'Well we haven't seen the real Tony Abbott most of the time either'.

JULIA GILLARD: Politician and cake! I said I was going to take some risks in this campaign.

HEATHER EWART: After a terrible week for the Gillard campaign, last week, dominated by Kevin Rudd instead of the Labor message, Julia Gillard is throwing the rule book for modern day campaigns out the window and in effect, she's challenging Tony Abbott to do the same.

JULIA GILLARD: Modern campaigning has an orthodoxy and the orthodoxy is that as a leader what you do is you engage in a number of set piece events, you run a risk averse campaign, you try and minimise the possibility for gaffes...

TONY ABBOTT: It was the faceless men who put the Prime Minister into office. It is the faceless men who are running her campaign.

TONY ABBOTT: If you elect Tony Abbott, you will get Tony Abbott. if you elect Julia Gillard, you will get the faceless men.

How do we know? Because she has told us.

HEATHER EWART: Well not exactly.

What she did say was that she was now taking control which is certainly a slap in the face for those behind the scenes running the campaign so far.

But with opinion polls pointing to level pegging, Labor knew it had to do something drastic to shift direction. For the voters, there may well be a collective sigh of relief.

HUGH MACKAY: There's no doubt that one of the reasons why voters have been switching off in droves and feeling not just bored but I think irritated by this campaign up until now is this sense of unreality about everything being so contrived, so measured. This terrible expression 'on message' where the leader's clearly given a very tight script and a very short leash.

HEATHER EWART: Of course Australian election campaigns have been heading in that direction for several years now, in the style of the US, and it will be interesting to see just how far Julia Gillard is prepared to go in tossing out conventional campaign practices.

It will take more than just an increase in street walks.

JULIA GILLARD: It'll have risks - some days it will go well, some days it will go badly but I am determined to make sure Australians hear directly from me about what I'm fighting for. And what I'm fighting for - strong economy, jobs, great schools.

TONY ABBOTT: A three week makeover does not compensate or correct three years of waste and incompetence.

HEATHER EWART: The Abbott campaign is certainly not about to change its strategy and is surprised by the tack Julia Gillard has taken.

It's pleased with the discipline Tony Abbott has displayed so far, so presumably that means the endless repetition of campaign themes will continue.

It's not clear what Labor plans to do with its well worn slogan pushed by campaign headquarters but it won't disappear entirely.

JULIA GILLARD: Moving forward.

Moving forward.

I look forward to moving forward.

TONY ABBOTT: If you elect the coalition, you will stop the big new taxes and you will stop the boats.

Stop the big new taxes and stop the boats.

Stop the big new taxes and stop the boats.

HUGH MACKAY: We know that nagging doesn't work if we've got teenage kids in the house.

Well it's exactly the same principle whether it's advertising or politics.

That kind of thing really raises serious doubts about how well informed, how well trained these so called strategists are. And the victims of this, of course, are the leaders who end up looking like puppets and sounding hollow.

HEATHER EWART: Julia Gillard was certainly sounding as though she was shedding the straitjacket today during an intensive round of tv and radio interviews.

She repeatedly made this observation:

JULIA GILLARD: We could easily wake up on the 22nd of August with a change of government in this country. It's a photo finish. Absolutely a photo finish.

TONY ABBOTT: This is the supreme challenge of my life. And I am determined to rise to this occasion.

So comfy, isn't it?

HEATHER EWART: For Tony Abbott, renowned for his outspokenness over the years, this is a whole new ball game.

TONY ABBOTT: I think I've been on public display in good times and in not so good times for a long, long time now. And I've got a lot that's been on the record over the years, on numerous different subjects.

But what you're seeing today is a party leader, not a senior frontbencher.

REPORTER: Mr Abbott, if you do win government, will you move your family into The Lodge or into Kirribilli?

TONY ABBOTT: Alison, I have an election to win. I have a-an electorate to talk to and I'm certainly not going to get ahead of myself.

HEATHER EWART: At the start of this campaign, Tony Abbott would never have expected a question like that.

The fact that he was asked it today with the polls tightening suggests just how much the dynamics of this campaign have changed. And reinforce why Julia Gillard has decided to chart her own course.